Shadows of Twilight
by Jedi-Princess-Solo
Summary: AU: In a galaxy where the Sith and the Jedi have put their differences aside in the face of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Kyp Durron and Jaina Solo were thrown together against their will
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: All characters are property of Lucasfilms and George Lucas, and a galaxy far, far away.

Things might be confusing in this fic for a while, but it will all be cleared up eventually. What you need to know: Kyp Sith, Jaina Jedi, Vong Bad

* * *

**Prologue**

Hyperspace was quiet.

The vast emptiness was unsettled to some, but he found it soothing.

Nothing but the silence, the solitude, as the space between the stars stretched out beyond him, enveloping him in a swirling kaleidoscope of amorphous swirls.

Kyp Durron like hyperspace, he liked being alone out there.

There had been times, in his youth, when he would take one of the fighters from the Temple and jump into hyperspace over Korriban, just to enjoy the silence. It gave him time to be alone, time to think, to let his mind wander away from the harsh rigors of his training.

That was a long time ago, though.

Before the Vong.

Back when all he had to worry about was staying on his Master's good side, keeping an eye on his potential rivals with the Order, maintaining the Empire and racking up an impressive kill list of Jedi.

Life was so much simpler then.

_Ah, the good old days,_ Kyp thought with a sigh.

Much had changed since then.

As a boy, he'd been drilled and tested and trained to the breaking point, because strength was power and power was everything. He'd worked hard to be the best at every task, to live up to his Master's expectations.

He'd learned at a young age that one did not want to disappoint Exar Kun.

It was a great honor, he'd been told entirely too many times throughout the years, to have been chosen by the Emperor himself. To have been taken as Kun's apprentice at such a young age, nurtured in the Sith arts from the tender age of six. He was envied, in the Empire, and he knew that there were many who would love to see him displaced, but so long as he had Kun's favor, none would dare to oppose him.

Not even the treacherous leech Brakiss.

That one had been so terribly disappointed when Exar Kun refused to leave his former apprentice to the Yuuzhan Vong.

Of course, Kyp had no delusions about why Kun had mounted a rescue party. It was not out of fondness for his old student, it was all about power. Kun had died once, thousands of years ago, only to be resurrected into a new body by Sidious, but even Kun knew that he was not immortal.

And without the ability to produce a child, Kun had to look to his former apprentice as his only heir.

He knew that Kyp, at least, would not turn on him. Others might see Kun to an early grave if it gave them a chance at the throne of the Imperial Remnant, but Kyp owed Kun too much to betray him, and Kun knew it.

If not for Kun, Kyp would have died with the rest of his family on Deyer when the New Republic came.

Kun made sure that he never forgot that.

As a teenager, angry and rumbling with fury, Kyp had found his calling in combat. It was easy to overcome his Jedi opponents, when they so blindly served the New Republic.

But even then, there had been a certain respect between the Sith and the Jedi.

They served opposite spectrums of the Force, but the Force still bound them together in some deeper way.

It was different with the Yuuzhan Vong.

They existed outside of the Force, an entire species of abominations, of butchers and religious fanatics. The Vong had swept into the galaxy like a plague, mutilating everything in their path and leaving death and destruction on a galactic scale in their wake.

Billions had been slaughtered, millions more sacrificed the Yuuzhan Vong's imaginary gods.

Dozens of worlds had been captured and hacked apart, forever tainted.

Coruscant was unrecognizable these days.

The Yuuzhan Vong called it "shaping", but Kyp didn't think there was a word powerful and disgusting enough for what they did to the planets they took.

And it wasn't just worlds that they were after.

Some little Jedi, Veila or something like that, had been captured at Myrkr. She'd been a part of the Jedi mission to wipe out the voxyn that the Yuuzhan Vong had breed to hunt down and kill any Force-user they came across, and although Kyp was pleased their mission had succeeded, for it meant he didn't have to worry about a pack of voxyn ambushing him and eating him alive, he cursed the Veila girl for falling into Yuuzhan Vong hands.

Better that she had died, or taken her own life.

Because the Veila girl had intrigued the Vong, she was the first Jedi that they'd been able to take alive, and they'd decided to use her as a lab specimen.

The Force fascinated the Yuuzhan Vong, because they were not a part of it they couldn't understand it, and they were obsessed with finding a way to harness the mysterious powers of the Jedi and Sith for themselves.

Veila had been "shaped", much like Coruscant, into something different.

Something distinctly Vong.

She had been rescued by the surviving members of her Jedi strike team after only a few days in captivity, so the Yuuzhan Vong brainwashing had not taken permanent root, but the damage had already been done.

The Yuuzhan Vong had realized that shaping Force-users could create a new generation of "super" Vong, with the powers of the Sith and the Jedi.

But their failure with Veila had shown them that they needed younger subjects to work with, and some shaper by the name of Kwaad had come to the conclusion that the best method of producing these "super" Vong was to use infants.

Thus the breeding labs were born.

Suddenly the Yuuzhan Vong were going to great lengths to capture Force-users alive. It didn't matter what their affiliation was; Sith, Jedi, Fallanassi, Jenasaari, Aing-Tii and Dathomiri alike, all were hunted.

And even the most powerful Force-users weren't always able to elude them.

Kyp himself had suffered the misfortune of being captured, when his bumbling apprentice walked them right into a trap.

Miko had not survived, and Kyp no longer felt regret about that fact. His apprentice had failed, and it had cost him his life, as was only fitting. According to tradition, such a failure would have required Kyp to take his life in the end, so it simply saved him the trouble. He would just have to take care to make sure his next apprentice was wiser.

If everything went according to plan, his next apprentice would also be much more powerful.

After all, any child of his would have to be strong in the Force.

And, if his spies were correct, that child was only a few weeks away from being born.

He had no idea what the sex of the child was going to be, he hadn't exactly had much contact with the soon-to-be mother, not since the day the Yuuzhan Vong had removed her from his cell and taken her to the maternity facility.

The Yuuzhan Vong weren't entirely stupid, they knew that even with ysalamari subduing the captives from accessing the Force it was dangerous to leave the two of them together. Of course what the Vong probably hadn't realized was that they were just as likely to kill each as they were their captors if the chance arose.

He was a Sith, after all, and Jaina Solo was one of the most stubborn Jedi in the galaxy.

She got that from her mother, no doubt.

_A trait my child could do without,_ Kyp mused idly.

Of course, if the child was as powerful as Exar Kun expected it to be, then that stubborn temperament could be overlooked.

_"I foresee that this child will be strong, Lord Durron. Strong, indeed..."_

The blood of Lord Vader himself ran in Jaina Solo's veins, and would be passed on to her son or daughter.

It was ironic, really.

The Yuuzhan Vong had hoped to take the child and shape it into the ultimate Yuuzhan Vong warrior, a slayer, that could help them wipe out both the Sith and the Jedi.

But they hadn't counted on the Jedi rescuing their beloved little Jedi princess, and taking their weapon away from them.

And the Jedi hadn't counted on the Sith rescuing _him_, or they would have hidden Jaina better.

It had been seven months after the Yuuzhan Vong whisked Jaina Solo away to another facility that Kyp awoke to find that Exar Kun had sent a team of his best Sith warriors to free him from the breeding lab. He would learn, after being brought back to Korriban, that the Jedi had found Jaina several months earlier.

Kyp had already known she was pregnant when the Vong took her away, but he'd been pleased to hear she hadn't had one of the Jedi healers interfere with the pregnancy.

And so he'd waited as three months passed, until her due date grew closer.

Some of the best Sith spies had been recruited to find out her location, as Kyp was not the only one with a vested interest in the child.

Exar Kun had plans for the newest member of the Sith family, as well.

A light on the display console flashed, signaling the approaching jump back to real-space, and Kyp swiveled his seat back around to face the front of the viewport, reaching for the controls as his ship trembled, emerging from hyperspace.

In front of him, the Maw came into view, blackholes looming across the horizon.

And Kyp smiled with amused anticipation.

Jaina Solo was not going to be happy to see him.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

This was her uncle's idea of justice, she was certain.

After all the headaches she and her brothers had given him during their youth, Luke Skywalker had put her here just to enjoy watching her suffer what he'd put her through all those years ago.

No wonder he'd had a smile on his face when he told her of her new assignment, he'd known it would be an absolute nightmare. 

Dealing with rambunctious Force-sensitive children always was.

_How did Dad do it?_ Jaina Solo wondered, groaning as she used the Force to nudge the telekinesis toys scattered across the room into one corner.

Her uncle and mother had at least had the Force to help them combat three little Jedi terrors, but Han Solo had no connection to the Force and hadn't been able to draw on it for reinforcement when his unruly children got out of hand the way that Luke and Leia had.

Yet somehow, he'd managed to be the authority figure just the same.

_I could use his advice right now,_ Jaina thought with a sigh.

She'd always prided herself on being tough, she was the Sword of the Jedi after all, a Jedi Knight and a hardened warrior. She'd faced down hundreds of Yuuzhan Vong without faltering, she'd endured torture and imprisonment, worked her way out of an endless parade of traps and difficult situations, all without breaking a sweat.

But a dozen little Jedi brats had her at wit's end.

When her uncle had decided to send her to the Maw, she hadn't argued, not much anyway.

It had, from a logical point of view, made sense. After all, she wasn't much good to the war effort in her present state, she wasn't fit to fly an X-wing much less participate in ground combat. She'd gone from being at the front line to a liability, someone to worry over and protect, and she hated it. There was a war waging across the galaxy and the Republic needed every Jedi it had, and she was just another burden on the Jedi.

At least at Shelter she could actually be useful, even if it was only by instructing the next generation.

"The children adore you, Jaina," she muttered under her breath, mimicking her uncle. "You're a legend to the younglings, they'll be so eager to learn from you."

_Ha!_

Luke was a traitor, he'd sold her out to those little brats.

"Contemplating murdering your uncle again, are we?" a familiar voice said from the doorway.

"Envisioning every last detail," Jaina retorted, turning to find Tionne looking at her with a sympathetic look on her face, silver eyes kind and knowing.

"They were hard on you today?" Tionne asked, slipping into the room and bending over to pick up some of the various toys at her feet. Without waiting for an answer, she smiled wryly. "Some days are worse than others, you just need to get some rest. Tomorrow will be better."

Jaina gave her a skeptical look, but didn't bother to argue.

In truth, she knew that the younglings weren't actively trying to drive her crazy, it was just as much her hormones as it was their behavior, but at the end of the day she didn't know whether she wanted to cry in frustration or wring their tiny little necks.

_Some mother you're going to be,_ she told herself irritably. _What happened to maternal instinct?_

As if in agreement with her assessment, her unborn child gave her a sharp kick.

Kidney shot, right on target.

This kid was going to be a terror, she could tell that from the start. 

He got that from his father, no doubt.

"How are you feeling today?" Tionne asked, eyeing her with an appraising gaze.

"Like a bloated bantha," Jaina grumbled. "My feet hurt, my back hurts, my ankles are swollen, and this little guy keeps using me for target practice."

"Babies do tend to get restless toward the end of term," Tionne pointed out as she collected the last of the toys from the floor. "He probably knows that it's almost time for him to be born, and is impatient to come into the world and meet you."

"That or he's trying to kill me from inside the womb," Jaina said dryly.

Tionne gave her a tolerant smile.

"Sorry," Jaina sighed, rubbing her temples. "Mood swings."

"You need rest," Tionne said gently. "You're due in less than a week's time, Jaina. You shouldn't be on your feet all day. Kam and I can cover some of your classes, you should be conserving your strength."

"And sit in my room all day watching old holovids?" Jaina snorted. "These kids drive me crazy, but it keeps me busy and that's what I need right now. If I have too much spare time on my hands, I'm likely to start thinking all sorts of crazy things, like whether or not my son is going to come out holding a red lightsaber."

"Your mother and uncle certainly didn't," Tionne reminded with a frown. "Despite the fact that your grandfather was a Sith Lord."

"Not when they were conceived, he wasn't," Jaina shot back.

"Jaina," Tionne said slowly, with mixed disapproval and regret in her solemn opal eyes. "I know you don't like to talk about him, but just because the baby's father is a Sith doesn't mean that your son is going to be one."

Jaina closed her eyes. "I know that."

"And I would think," Tionne continued in a gentle, but firm tone. "That you, of all people, would know better than to hold a child responsible for the sins of a parent." 

"I don't," Jaina sighed, opening her eyes to give the older woman an affronted glance. "That is... I love this baby, he's been trying to kick me to death for nine months, but I love him." She smiled despite herself, letting her palm splay across her stomach, feeling her son stir. "And I know he's good and pure and innocent, I can feel it, but in my heart I... I'm scared that he won't always be that way."

"Because of his father."

"Among other things," Jaina murmured. 

This little life had been growing inside of her for nine months, nine long months filled with all of the negative energy of war, and surely all of the grief and anger and bitterness swirling inside of her had left some sort of mark on the child in her womb. 

She tried so hard to shield him from it, but sometimes it was all so overwhelming.

Every time she thought of her baby brother, her heart broke all over again and that frenzied tangle of rage and despair would rear its head inside of her, making it hard to breathe.

Her family had sent her to the Maw to protect her child from the Yuuzhan Vong, but how was she supposed to protect him from herself?

"You worry too much, dear," Tionne told her with a gentle smile. "It's not good for you." 

No, it probably wasn't.

But it was impossible not to worry, with the Yuuzhan Vong rampaging through the galaxy and her family scattered across the front lines, fighting the enemy with everything they had, while she was here helpless to do anything for any of them. Every day she dread that the comm-call she knew might come, telling her that her mother or father or brother or aunt or uncle was dead, just like Anakin.

She worried about what would happen if they never won, and if the Yuuzhan Vong ever found her son.

If that happened, she didn't have to wonder what would become of her son, she knew what the Yuuzhan Vong would do to him.

It was the reason that he'd been conceived in the first place, after all.

"The children are already off to bed," Tionne said. "Why don't you go ahead and get some rest, and I'll finish cleaning up in here. I'm sure Ben is waiting for you to come tuck him in."

Jaina smiled wearily. "Thanks, Tionne."

Sure enough, when she reached her quarters, she found Ben sitting on his bed in the room adjoining her own, fidgeting with his blankets. "You're late," her young cousin accused her as she slipped into his room. "Can't sleep until you come." 

"I'm sorry, kiddo," Jaina apologized. "I'm here now."

"Yeah," Ben agreed, then blinked up at her with his steely gray eyes. "Can I read?"

Settling herself on the edge of his bed, which was no easy feat with all the extra weight she was carrying around these days, Jaina raised an eyebrow. "You're going to read to me for a change?"

Ben nodded eagerly, holding up the datapad that contained his bookchip for The Little Lost Bantha Cub. "Been practicing," he announced proudly.

"Okay, then," Jaina said, leaning against the wall. "Show me what you've got." 

"After the san... sandstorm that drove him from home," Ben read from the datapad, stumbling over the words a little. "The little lost bantha cub wandered alone."

As he read, or recited the well-worn poem, it was hard to tell, Jaina smiled softly, resting a hand on her stomach, and let his soothing little voice fill her ears. She had a sudden memory of Anakin at that age, eager to show off his own reading skills to his big brother and sister, and of Jacen rolling his eyes but begrudgingly sitting through it lest he suffer Jaina's wrath.

_It seems so long ago,_ she thought wistfully.

Those had been simpler times, and she longed for the more peaceful days of her youth.

As peaceful as things could have been anyway, with the endless number of kidnappings, the political upheaval, the constant conflict with Exar Kun and his Sith Order...

_Funny how all of that seems so trivial next to the Yuuzhan Vong,_ Jaina observed with bitter amusement.

She'd handled more than her share of daunting enemies in the past, from the Ssi-ruuk to the Yevethan and the Chiss, but none of them had ever truly frightened her, not the way the Yuuzhan Vong did. Not even the brief time she'd spent as a captive of the Sith Lord Brakiss when she was eleven had shaken her as badly as her experiences with the Vong.

Those other enemies had been dangerous, to be certain, but the Yuuzhan Vong were like nothing they had ever faced.

Jaina knew that firsthand.

It had been just months after Anakin's death at Coruscant, after her little brother sacrificed his own life in order to take out Shimrra, and she'd been off balance with grief. The death of the Supreme Overlord had not stopped the Yuuzhan Vong, and it was soon discovered that Shimrra had only been a puppet for the true power behind the throne, the mad Omini.

Jacen had been hunting the deformed Vong ever since, determined to finish their brother's mission.

So while Jacen was off on his quest, Jaina threw herself into the war, leading every strike she could, fighting in every engagement, and volunteering herself for every crazy plan that Intelligence dreamed up.

Her parents had worried, but she'd refused to pull back. 

As long as she kept fighting, she would survive, because she knew the moment she lowered her lightsaber, the pain of losing Anakin would consume her.

But she'd poured too much of herself into the fight, and she'd burned out, just like her mother had feared. 

They took her at Ylesia, broken both in body and spirit. 

She still, even all this time later, had very little recollection of the events en route to the breeding facility on Helska IV. There were blurry snippets of physical pain, of agony burning through her body, but the memories were only half-lucid, and in truth she was not sure she wanted to remember.

The scars on her back implied it had not been a very pleasant trip.

And it had only been a prelude to what was in store for her once they reached Helska IV.

Later, she would be told that she had been in the Yuuzhan Vong's clutches for nearly eight months, but the days and weeks had all bled together while she was a prisoner. The systematic starvation and drugging that the Yuuzhan Vong had used on their captives had been more than effective at carving away at her already dwindling strength, and more than once Jaina had been certain that she was on the verge of death, only to have the Yuuzhan Vong bring her back again.

After all, they had plans for her and weren't about to lose out on their prize so easily.

If not for Tahiri, she would still be there.

It had been Tahiri who, despite her fears of tapping into the side of her that the Yuuzhan Vong had shaped, had put on a frighteningly convincing performance of Riina Kwaad finally coming to the surface and exerting control as the Vong had intended.

Tahiri who compromised her own integrity in ways Jaina couldn't imagine, for her.

It had taken the Jedi weeks to uncover what the Yuuzhan Vong wanted with Jaina, and then months after that to track down the location of the breeding facility. There had been some difficulty in getting Yuuzhan Vong prisoners to talk, but Tahiri, drawing on the Yuuzhan Vong inside of her, had known how to break them. From there out, Jaina's rescue was entirely in Tahiri's hands.

And in the hands of Daeshara'cor, who, poisoned by an amphistaff bite, had been the willing victim needed for Tahiri to prove herself to the Yuuzhan Vong.

Jaina had not seen it, of course, but she'd heard about it later.

Nom Anor had given Tahiri a couffee, never believing that the young Jedi would actually use it, but Daeshara'cor was already dying anyway, nothing could stop that now, and she wanted her death to mean something.

So Tahiri slit the Twi'lek Jedi's throat, and won over the confidences of the Yuuzhan Vong.

It had taken her nearly two months to gain access to the breeding facility, two months full of deeds and sins that Tahiri had never spoken of and Jaina was too grateful to inquire about. What she did know was that the Yuuzhan Vong had constantly thrust Tahiri into positions where she had to prove herself, or die, and she had what was necessary in order to get to Jaina.

She'd done it because of Anakin, who'd died too young at twenty.

And left too much behind.

He'd married Tahiri on a whim shortly after their strike team had recovered her from Yuuzhan Vong hands at Myrkr, and Jaina had stood beside the younger girl while Luke conducted the ceremony.

Anakin had been soaring that day, and Tahiri's smile had been bright enough to light up the entire room.

Now Anakin was dead, and Tahiri had not smiled since.

The woman who appeared in the doorway of her cell to rescue her, dressed in voodum crab armor and carrying a couffee stained with blood, had not been the girl that her brother married. Losing Anakin, and being forced to live without him in the midst of the horrors of war, had hardened Tahiri into a new woman, but when she knelt at Jaina's side after killing the ysalamari in the room, Jaina had wept in relief at the familiar sight.

Tahiri had helped her to her feet, and offered her the lightsaber the Yuuzhan Vong had taken from her upon her capture all those months ago, and together they had made their way out of that sithspawned place.

A Jedi team was waiting in orbit to whisk them back to the safety of the Jedi's stronghold.

But instead of relief, Jaina had felt nothing but terror at the prospect of being reunited with her family. The fear of having to look her mother in the eye and tell her the things that had been done to her, the things that she had been forced to do, was so overpowering that it made her physically ill.

Tahiri had known before Jaina's broken confession, in the month she'd spent infiltrating the facility she had learned all of the terrible details.

And so, in a gesture uncharacteristic of the hardened woman she'd turned in, she'd let Jaina sob out all of her pain, humiliation, self-disgust and fear, all the while simply holding her and whispering fierce promises of vengeance on her behalf.

Six weeks later, Tahiri had shown up at Shelter in the middle of the night, with Mezhan Kwaad's head in hand.

It had done little to give Jaina peace, but knowing the vile creature responsible for it all was dead had sent vehement joy surging through her heart.

After all, Kwaad was the one who'd held her in such awful conditions, who'd starved her and drugged her until she was desperate enough to allow herself to be forced into intimacy with a Sith Lord that she loathed, one who loathed her equally in return.

It was because of Kwaad that she was pregnant with said Sith Lord's child.

Jacen had not been able to look at her for days when the rest of the family learned the truth, and then he'd taken off again to continue his pursuit of Omini.

Her father had tried, but she had been able to see the terrible pain in his eyes whenever he looked at her, the pain of a man who thought he had failed his daughter. Her aunt had been furious on her behalf, all burning hatred and scathing fury, raging all of Jaina's own anger when she hadn't the strength to do it herself. Her uncle, being the wise Jedi Master that he was, had told her that she had done nothing wrong, that this child was a gift from the Force, a light in the endless sea of despair surrounding them.

And Leia, whom Jaina had so desperately been afraid to see once her mother knew the truth, had merely embraced her, smoothing her daughter's hair and drying her tears, and promised that everything would be okay.

As bleak as things had seemed, that was when Jaina knew that her mother was right.

A soft snore startled her out of her bittersweet reverie, and Jaina looked down to see that Ben had fallen asleep, his datapad still clutched in his little hand, and she stifled a chuckle.

Only Luke's son could fall asleep while reading aloud.

"Sleep tight, kiddo," Jaina told him, pressing a light kiss to his reddish gold hair, and then pulling his blanket up over his sleeping form.

He looked so innocent in his sleep, but she knew it was misleading.

Ben was as much of a troublemaker as she and her brothers had been at that age, which didn't bode well for her own son.

It seemed genetic that any child born into their family was going to be a handful.

Swiping her hand over the light panel, Jaina dimmed the room and smiled as Ben snuggled deeper under his blanket, then backed out, letting the door slide shut behind her with a low whoosh. 

She started to turn, and the hair on the back of her neck bristled in warning, but pregnancy had slowed her reaction time.

A mist hit her in the face, and her vision blurred.

Jaina swayed on her feet, overcome with dizziness, and weakly searched for the wall with her hand, but strong hands grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from falling, and she felt her legs give out beneath her as the world around her darkened.

The last thing she saw as she lost consciousness was a familiar pair of green eyes.

And Kyp Durron's infuriating smirk.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

She looked deceptively peaceful in sleep. 

This wasn't a new discovery, he'd noticed it during their shared captivity.

Of course, she hadn't slept much those first few days, angrily declaring that she wasn't stupid enough to let herself fall asleep in the presence of a Sith, and her attempts to resist sleep had amused him.

Eventually, the need for rest had overpowered her stubbornness.

But she'd still slept on the opposite side of their small cell for some time, as far away from his as possible.

He'd watched her then, on occasion when he was unable to sleep himself, and marveled at how appearances could be so deceiving, that she looked for all the world like a gentle, delicate young woman in her sleep, when he knew her to be neither gentle nor delicate.

Jaina Solo was the kind of Jedi he liked best, fierce and passionate and reckless.

The kind that every Sith wanted to fight.

And Kyp Durron had acquired plenty of practice, and refined skill, at the art of pushing Jaina Solo into a fight.

There hadn't been much else to do during their long months of captivity, after all.

She was unconscious now, he'd needed her to be in order to steal her away from the Maw without drawing the attention of the Jedi based there, but she'd seen him right before she collapsed.

A spark of recognition, and burning outrage, had flared in her dark eyes.

When she came to, things were going to be explosive.

But he'd known that from the start.

Slipping into the Jedi base in the Maw had been the easy part of his plan.

There weren't many defenses, secrecy and the difficult navigation of the blackhole field had apparently been deemed sufficient protection by Skywalker and those fools.

And, he was willing to admit, against the Yuuzhan Vong it probably was.

But Kyp knew the Maw like no one else. 

Once, many years ago, he'd been forced to fly through it with mines in the wake of his ship, as one Exar Kun's numerous tests. 

He'd memorized the feel of the Maw, the specific pattern in the Force.

Even years later, he could navigate it blind. 

Masking his presence in the Force, he'd done just that and managed to sneak into Jaina Solo's quarters just in time to catch her emerging from the adjoining room belonging to Skywalker's son.

For all of two seconds, he'd considered snatching the boy, too.

Exar Kun would certainly had been thrilled if he'd delivered the only son of Luke Skywalker, and it would have been amusing to show Brakiss the correct way to go about successfully kidnapping a grandchild of Darth Vader, but in the end he'd decided against it.

The last thing he needed was Mara Jade Skywalker on his trail.

Besides, he had a feeling dealing with one Skywalker brat was going to be difficult enough, even if she was debilitated by pregnancy.

_Or perhaps pregnancy has only made her more difficult,_ Kyp thought wryly.

Across the cabin, the subject of his scrutiny stirred faintly, but did not regain consciousness.

Getting out of the Maw with an unconscious, and very pregnant, Jaina in his arms had been a tad more difficult than getting in alone, but he'd managed it well enough. He'd carried her straight into one of the cabins on his ship, and deposited her on the sleeping pallet, careful not to jar her in her delicate state.

That was his child in there, after all.

Once they'd made the jump into hyperspace, Kyp had put the ship on autopilot and ventured back to check on his sleeping guest.

He wanted to be there when she came to. 

Confrontations with young Jaina Solo had always done him good, they were never dull.

It was taking a little longer than expected for her to awaken from the mist he'd doused her with, but that was just as well- this way he had a chance to study her in peace and quiet.

She'd changed considerably since their captivity.

But it was more than just the extended belly, swollen with his child, or the roundness of her cheeks.

The last time he'd seen Jaina Solo, she had been thin, too thin, with straggly hair plastered to her face and a sickly shade to her skin. She'd been sporting bruises and various cuts and scrapes inflicted by the Yuuzhan Vong, her mouth drooping and her eyes flat and hollow. 

She'd healed in many ways since then.

Her skin was flushed again, healthy and radiant, and she'd clearly put on enough weight to counteract the painful malnutrition from captivity.

That dark, luxurious hair that he'd always admired had its shine back, and it fell across her face as she slept, a face that was free of bruises or any other form of blemish.

She was strong again, he could feel it.

And, in truth, he was glad.

Jaina in the shape she'd been in when he last laid eyes on her would not have been in the proper shape to carry a healthy child.

And as for the child itself...

Staring at the swell of Jaina's stomach, Kyp slowly extended his perceptions outward in her direction, homing in on the tiny flicker of life within her, on that small flame burning in the Force.

The child was strong, too, as he'd known it would be.

Reacting to his touch in the Force, the baby stirred, and Kyp licked his lips before quietly rising to his feet, brushing his cape behind him, and crossing the cabin to stand over the sleeping Jedi. He moved his hand over her stomach, splaying his palm against her tunic and almost smiled as the baby kicked his fingers.

That tiny baby was his, his flesh and blood.

_A boy,_ he realized in awe.

He'd been hoping it would be, he'd been dreaming of a son ever since learning Jaina was pregnant. 

_The future heir to the Empire,_ Kyp mused proudly. _He'll have the entire galaxy at his feet._

His reverie was broken by a rather sharp burst of awareness in the Force, and he realized that it was not coming from his son just before Jaina wrenched away from his hand violently.

"You," she snarled, dark eyes blazing.

She tried to lunge at him but her belly, and the restraints he'd been wise enough to outfit her with while she was still unconscious, prevented her from reaching him. In the end, she was caught in an awkward, and assumably painful, position, laying on her side with her arms twisted behind her and tethered to the wall of the cabin.

Chuckling, Kyp rocked back on his heels. "Hello, Jaina," he said lowly, with a smirk. "Did you miss me?"

For a moment, he thought she might spit at him, she was so angry.

"Take me back," she demanded coldly.

Kyp laughed, amused at the request. "When I went through all the trouble to get you in the first place?" he retorted with an easy grin. "I don't think so." 

"Take me back," Jaina repeated, with a dangerous undercurrent. "Or so help me I will open your throat on my lightsaber, Durron."

"You mean this lightsaber?" Kyp asked, his grin broadening, and gestured to his belt.

Jaina glared at the hilt of her weapon, which he'd commandeered from her while she was unconscious, and he felt her concentrating on it with the Force, so he gave her an irritated flick back, eliciting a scowl. 

"None of that, now," he warned seriously. "I have ysalamari, I'd just prefer not to use it. It's so unpleasant, after all, as I'm sure you remember."

From the hateful look she gave him, she remembered all too well.

"You really should have taken greater care to hide yourself, Jaina," Kyp advised, the corner of his mouth lifting in a mocking smirk. "Hiding out with all the little Jedi brats might have fooled the Yuuzhan Vong, but did you really think I wouldn't be able to find you? You must have hoped I was still their captive."

"No," Jaina said with a low growl. "I'd hoped you were dead." 

"So sorry to disappoint you," Kyp sneered. "But it really is for the best that I'm here, Jaina, you know how a boy needs his father."

She stiffened, and for an instant he saw fear in her eyes, before the fury descended once more.

"You won't ever lay a hand on him," Jaina snarled, like a mother rancor protecting its young. "I swear it, Durron, you won't ever get anywhere near my son."

"_Our_ son," he spat. "I was there when he was conceived, or have you forgotten that?"

"Force knows I've tried," she threw back in disgust.

"Oh, I'm sure you have," Kyp said huskily. "But I'm in your system, aren't I, Jaina? You can't forget what it felt like to have my hands on you." To prove his point, he reached out a hand to touch her stomach, and he laughed when she struggled futilely against her restraints. "I know _every_ inch of you, Jaina, and you can't stand it, but this is a constant reminder that you gave yourself to me." 

"Not by choice."

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart," he chuckled maliciously, letting his fingers trace lazy patterns over her swollen stomach and watching her flinch. "I know better."

"I hate you," Jaina whispered fiercely, dark eyes wet with anger.

"You've been saying that since you were fifteen," Kyp pointed out softly. "That song is getting old."

"And I've meant it every single time."

Kyp let his hand still, pressed against her stomach as his gaze bore into hers. She was positively trembling with fury, eyes wide and several shades darker than the usual brandy brown, nostrils flaring. It was a look he knew all too well, having been on the receiving end of it many a time over the years.

He'd seen it almost daily during the early days of their captivity.

And it had accompanied the slap she'd given him at Borleias several years back, when they were forced to set aside their differences and fly together against the Vong.

That was a day burned into his memory.

"I want my son," he said flatly, staring her down with his hand still on her stomach, which she was acutely aware of, he was certain. "Unfortunately, he doesn't seem quite ready to come out yet, so I'll have to endure the pleasure of your company a bit longer. That means you're going to have to sit tight until he's born, I'm afraid, at which time I will be more than happy to jettison you out of the nearest airlock." 

Her lip curled into a snarl, which he ignored.

"All I want," Kyp murmured, warning underlacing the light tone of his voice. "Is what is rightfully mine, my son."

Jaina smiled a smile that showed all of her teeth, looking like a Tusken wildcat.

"You can have him," she replied in kind, ferocity barely contained behind her smile. "Over my dead body." 

"That would certainly make my life easier," Kyp sneered.

He let his hand fall from her stomach as he rose to his feet to tower over her on the sleeping pallet, and she had to turn her head to glare up at him, causing a strand of hair to fall across her nose, which made her glare decidedly less effective. 

"It's going to be a long trip, so I'd advise you to get comfortable," Kyp told her coldly. "We wouldn't want you going into premature labor, now would we?"

Jaina cursed him in Huttesse, violently trying to break free of her restraints. 

"I'd save your energy," Kyp called back to her as he slapped his hand on the touchpad by the door. "I hear that childbirth is positively exhausting and excruciating. And just think, without a med-droid or a healer on board, you might die in the process."

He paused in the doorway, smirking back at her.

"Not to worry, though, I'll take good care of our little boy."

The Force flexed with her rage, and as the door slid shut behind him, he felt a powerful surge hit the durasteel door, leaving a dent in the frame.

Kyp chuckled, shaking his head as he made his way back to the cockpit.

It was a shame that she'd been brought up a Jedi, he'd thought that from the moment her. With a temper like hers, she would have made a magnificent Sith.


End file.
